The present invention relates to systems, apparatus, and/or methods for use in processing objects (e.g., iron bearing pellets, pharmaceutical tablets, coarse rocks and aggregate materials, etc.). More particularly, the present invention pertains to the separation of fines from the objects being processed (e.g., a mixture of such fines and objects, such as a feed mixture including rounded whole iron bearing pellets, pellet chips, and pellet dust).
Selective screening of materials to remove fines is a relatively common practice in various industries. For example, such screening or separation processes are commonly used in applications such as mining, food product manufacturing, wood product manufacturing, pharmaceutical product manufacturing, etc.
Different techniques for the sizing of pellets, ores, agglomerates, or other coarse materials have been described. For example, separation methods typically used employ vibrating and/or screen equipment for separating fines from coarser materials.
In the iron ore and taconite mining industry, over 200 million tons of iron ore pellets are produced worldwide, and most require screening prior to being charged into iron-making blast furnaces. Existing pellet screening has generally been accomplished with the use of vibrating screen equipment. However, such vibrating screen equipment is very capital cost and operating cost intensive (e.g., maintenance costs associated with such equipment) which makes the separation of fines from a feed mixture (e.g., a feed mixture including such pellets, dust, pellet chips, etc.) uneconomical. Further, such vibrating screen equipment may cause physical breakage and abrasion to the whole pellets being separated from the fines.